Shadél
by Lilya
Summary: On 4th July Boromir left Minas Tirith: someone was waiting for him along the road, next to a willow tree they both knew well...


**Shadél**

Disclaimer: I don't own Boromir nor the song "As I roved out".

Thanks to my friend Lara, who helped me with Gondor dialect and transcribe the lyrics of this song.

Author's notes: I didn't find anywhere the lyrics of "As I roved out" so I had to transcribe them. Lara helped me but every mistake/senseless sentence is my responsibility.

I'm not English: if you find any mistake please correct me.

* * *

_As I roved out, on a bright May morning_

_ to view the meadows and the flowers gay_

The rider turned around to look at his city: Minas Tirith, with her walls and her high white tower, stood out against the sky.

That man was Boromir, son of Denethor Steward of Gondor: a long journey laid ahead of him, to the lands of the Elves. He couldn't leave without casting a last glance to the city where he was born, the city he had defended for years from Mordor's attacks.

The sun was rising, shining upon every roof.

Boromir looked worriedly at the walls, those walls that had repelled so many assaults and protected so many people…His people. And among them there was her…He bowed his head: he couldn't forgive himself for leaving without saying her goodbye. He had looked for her everywhere, the previous evening…But he hadn't found her.

It broke his heart to leave her like this, but he couldn't do anything: the road he had to run along was long, very long.

He turned his horse and spurred him to a trot, riding through the green meadows full of flowers where they had often strolled together.

_who should I spy but my young true lover_

_as she sat under yon willow tree_

Next to the road there was a hillock and on his top stood an old but robust willow. Boromir turned his head toward him, almost offering a silent tribute to the vigil sentinel that watched over the city, over the meadows…and that many times had watched over their meetings.

How many times they had sat under its fronds…Suddenly he noticed the willow didn't stand alone on the hill: beside the tree stood a woman. Tall, proud, her dark hair caressed by the gentle breeze, her face blank…But if she could kept her face expressionless, she couldn't do the same with her eyes. Those dark eyes he loved so much had never hidden anything to him and this time it wouldn't be different.

He felt as if he had gone back to twenty years before, when he left for the first time to defend his Country.

The love and the anguish he saw in her eyes were the same he had seen in that day. They hadn't changed.

_I took off my hat and I did salute her_

_I did salute her most courageously_

As in that day, he bowed his head in salutation and respect, placing his right hand over his heart, trying to ignore the pain he felt in his chest, the same she felt as well.

But there was no choice: he had to leave and they both knew so.

As they knew a long time had to pass before they could see each other again.

They had to be strong.

_when she turned round well the tears fell from her… _

A sun ray caressed her cheek, making a tear shine. She was there, beside that willow, watching him ride away, crying silently: tears fell down on her cheeks like drops of rain down a statue.

Just like the fist time he left her. Everything was like that day.

A diamond ring I owned I gave you a diamond ring to wear on your right hand

Slowly the woman rose her right harm, waving him farewell widely. Widely, but slowly and solemnly at the same time.

Something sparkled on her hand. A sun ray was caught for a second by the diamond of the ring…that ring he had given her many years before but she had never worn.

He remembered the night he had slipped it on her finger, right under that willow: her hands small and warm, the starlight and the moonlight mirrored in her eyes and on the stone of the ring.

She had never worn it. It was too dangerous.

_Now at nights when I go to my bed of slumber _

_the thoughts of my true love run in my mind _

_when I turned around to embrace my darling_

_instead of gold sure it's brass I find..._

He didn't care what his father said, if she, daughter of a soldier, could never marry the Steward of Gondor to come: he belonged to her like she belonged to him.

Their bond was stronger than any promise made before the Valar or men and no one could ever break it. Because of this, in spite of his father's insistences, he had never married: her or no one else, he wouldn't change his mind. She was the girl for him.

She wasn't even gone from his sight and he already missed her. While he rode Northward, Boromir took an irrevocable decision: 'When I come back, I'll marry her.'

_And I wish the Queen would call home her army…_

She had spent too many years waiting for him to come back to Minas Tirith, hoping the Steward would call him home for this or that reason.

Too many days spent fighting the war in the city, helping as much as she could.

Boromir couldn't stop even if he wished it: but she did know this.

He passed by, turning back to look at her until she, the willow and the hill disappeared completely from his sight.

She was still there, by that willow. As in that day of many years before, when they said goodbye for the first time.

_and every man to his wedded woman_

_in hopes that you and I will meet again. _

Boromir spurred his horse.

Passing her by he had looked at her face for the last time: a tiny whisper had left her lips. "_Shadél_…"

_Shadél_. One simple word and yet it meant so many thing in the local speech of their Country. _Shadél_. Until we meet again. Goodbye. So long.

A long time would have passed before they could embrace again. They just didn't know how much.


End file.
